Digital Commons Network^™

The Untold History Of Women’S Suffrage: Voting Rights Pre-Ratification, Hayley N. Lawrence

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Cleaning Corporate Governance, Jens Frankenreiter, Cathy Hwang, Yaron Nili, Eric L. Talley

Faculty Scholarship

Although empirical scholarship dominates the field of law and finance, much of it shares a common vulnerability: an abiding faith in the accuracy and integrity of a small, specialized collection of corporate governance data. In this paper, we unveil a novel collection of three decades’ worth of corporate charters for thousands of public companies, which shows that this faith is misplaced.

We make three principal contributions to the literature. First, we label our corpus for a variety of firm- and state-level governance features. Doing so reveals significant infirmities within the most well-known corporate governance datasets, including an error rate exceeding …

When Virtual Discipline Becomes Virtual Suspension: Protecting The Due Process Rights Of Virtual Learners, Peggy Nicholson

Faculty Scholarship

It is well established that public school students do not shed their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse door. But what about when the “schoolhouse door” is a computer screen, with students entering and exiting the learning environment from the comfort of their homes through an internet-enabled device? The rise of virtual learning, expedited by the COVID-19 pandemic, raises questions about when and how constitutional rights apply to public school students in the virtual setting. This Paper examines one of those constitutional questions, by exploring the application of procedural due process to the emerging practice of virtual discipline. The Due Process …

Discipline In North Carolina’S Charter Schools, Peggy Nicholson, Ryan Yang, Richard Yang

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Discovery Of Expert Reports And Testimony In Criminal Cases, Paul W. Grimm

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Office Of The Chief Circuit Judge, Marin K. Levy, Jon O. Newman

Faculty Scholarship

Despite famously being called, merely, “one among equals,” the Chief Judge of a federal court of appeals plays a significant role on their court. Internally, the Chief Judge is responsible for everything from overseeing the circuit’s budget to influencing how the court’s sitting calendar is set, from selecting judges who will sit by designation to reviewing complaints of misconduct against judges in their circuit. Externally, the Chief Judge serves as the court’s representative to the Judicial Conference of the United States, the national policy-making body for the federal courts. Outside of official duties, the Chief Judge may initiate projects, which …

How To Treat The Wto's Problem With Precedent, Timothy Meyer

Faculty Scholarship

This Article argues that the World Trade Organization’s Appellate Body (AB), or a successor body, must become more transparent in justifying its decision to rely (or not) on prior decisions. The AB’s practice of precedent—which the United States cited as a cause of its decision to paralyze the AB by blocking new appointments—is similar to how it has approached “likeness” in nondiscrimination cases. It placed a lot of weight on whether two cases (or products) are sufficiently similar to be compared, and it spent relatively less time substantively justifying its treatment of prior cases. Because the WTO does not have …

The Search For Clarity In An Attorney’S Duty To Google, Michael Murphy

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Fiduciary Duties On The Temporal Edges Of Agency Relationships, Deborah A. Demott

Faculty Scholarship

The duties that principals and agents owe each other are typically coterminous with the agency relationship itself. But sometimes temporal lines of clean demarcation do less work. The Chapter identifies situations in which an agent may owe duties—including fiduciary duties—to the principal prior to the formal start of their relationship, including any enforceable contract between the parties. Likewise, not all duties that agents and principals owe each other end with the relationship. The Chapter explores the rationales for duties at the temporal peripheries for an agency relationship and the extent to which they are derived from doctrines distinct from agency …

Keynote Address: Alaskan Election Law In 2020, Erwin Chemerinsky

Alaska Law Review

No abstract provided.

How Should Alaskans Choose?: The Debate Over Ranked Choice Voting, Angela Sbano

Alaska Law Review

In November 2020, Alaskan voters will decide whether or not they will adopt a Ranked Choice Voting system for elections within their state. While the move would be an unprecedented one for the state, the state of Maine and cities across the country have already adopted Ranked Choice Voting in recent years. The electoral system of Ranked Choice Voting in the United States has seen city-wide adoption, mass repeal, and renewed interest and support over the last century. Proponents hail its ability to improve representation and campaign civility, while opponents point out its complexity and potential to decrease voter turnout. …

Unlocking The Ballot: The Past, Present, And Future Of Alaska Native Voting Rights, Zachary R. Kaplan

Alaska Law Review

Racial oppression in American democracy is older than America itself. While most existing scholarship focuses on the historical disenfranchisement of Black and Latinx voters, this Note tells the story of the voting rights of a smaller, but still noteworthy marginalized American community: Alaska Natives. By contextualizing the history of Alaska Native disenfranchisement within the broader national landscape, this Note seeks to illuminate the ways in which the Alaska Native experience is similar to, and unique from, the experiences of other marginalized American communities. Although this history and present are rife with troubling discrimination, inequity, and non-compliance, this Note is ultimately …

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road: Enfranchisement Among Native American Voters And Nick V. Bethel, Kristen M. Renberg

Alaska Law Review

This Comment documents the limited impact of Nick v. Bethel and proposes legislative and electoral reforms to increase enfranchisement among Alaska Natives. The Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965 made significant progress in protecting minority voting rights. In 2007, a federal district court interpreted the “historically unwritten” exemption in Section 203 of the VRA for the first time in Nick. While the court found Yup’ik to be historically unwritten, the court also reasoned that written translations of election materials should be prepared in order to ensure that oral translations were effective in accommodating voters. The state responded through various actions …

Note: Foundational But Not Fundamental: No Right To The Environment, Robert Torres

Duke Environmental Law & Policy Forum

The world is on fire, and despite a general consensus among scientists that climate change is an imminent threat, recent decades have been devoid of legislatures capable of enacting meaningful legislation. The flames rage on as our President, an outspoken denier of climate change, adds fuel to the fire by stripping whatever attempts had been previously made to mitigate the effects of climate change. Forced to live in what seems a forsaken world, nineteen youths, a nonprofit organization, and a scientist on behalf of all future generations brought suit against the United States government, seeking more robust environmental protections. In …

The Environmental Protection Agency’S Role In U.S. Climate Policy- A Fifty Year Appraisal, Jody Freeman

Duke Environmental Law & Policy Forum

No abstract provided.

Alaska’S Ballot Initiative Today: History, Practice, And Process, Elizabeth M. Bakalar

Alaska Law Review

Since statehood, Alaska’s Constitution has included the right of the people to enact legislative change by direct democracy. The state’s initiative process as governed by the Alaska Constitution, statutes, and caselaw reflects a delicate balance of citizen participation within carefully crafted guardrails meant to ensure the efficacy of the process and the role of the legislature. Alaska courts have developed a still-evolving body of caselaw interpreting the restrictions on the subject and scope of ballot initiatives, the role of the executive and judicial branches in the initiative process, and the timing and procedural features of the process. Navigating the initiative …

Alaskan Exceptionalism In Campaign Finance, Chad Flanders

Alaska Law Review

This article argues that Alaska’s efforts in campaign finance reform are closely tied to a philosophy of “Alaskan Exceptionalism”: the view that Alaska is fundamentally different from other states. A recent decision from the Supreme Court, Thompson v. Hebdon , may, however, weaken Alaska’s right to justify its reforms through an “exceptionalist” lens. The same decision suggests the Supreme Court is further narrowing its campaign finance jurisprudence more generally. Without these campaign finance limits, Alaskan politics may continue to be dominated by the oil and gas industry, the very problem those limits sought to address in the first place

Retaining Judicial Independence: Solutions To Increasing Threats To Alaska’S Judicial Merit System, Ryan Kuchinski

Alaska Law Review

While the judicial merit system in Alaska has effectively balanced accountability with the competing need for independence in the judiciary, the growing trend of politicized retention elections threatens that independence. This Note examines the threat to the Alaskan judicial merit system, argues for the importance of protecting an independent judiciary, and proposes a number of potential solutions to reform or replace the current retention election system.

When Misrepresentation Becomes Deceptive: Analyzing Petition-Signer Inadvertence Post-Cambell, Melissa English, Daisy Gray

Alaska Law Review

In 2010, the Alaska supreme court held that a legally deficient petition summary of a ballot initiative could be corrected and put on the ballot without being recirculated for signatures. The Parental Involvement Initiative at the root of the litigation would prohibit doctors from performing abortions for unemancipated minor women who had not provided notice to or obtained consent from a parent. After the petition was circulated for signatures, the supreme court determined that omissions of fact in the petition summary rendered the summary inaccurate and therefore deficient. However, the court refused to require that the initiative sponsors recirculate the …

Foreign Interference In Elections Under The Non-Intervention Principle: We Need To Talk About “Coercion”, Steven Wheatley

Duke Journal of Comparative & International Law

This article looks at the problem of foreign state cyber and influence operations targeting democratic elections through the lens of the non-intervention principle. The work focuses on the meaning of “coercion” following the 1986 Nicaragua case, wherein the International Court of Justice concluded that “[i]ntervention is wrongful when it uses methods of coercion.” The analysis shows that coercion describes a situation where (1) the foreign power wants the target state to do something and wants to be certain this will happen; (2) the outside power then takes some action, either by issuing a coercive threat, using coercive force, or engaging …

Cutting Submarine Cables: The Legality Of The Use Of Force In Self-Defense, Blair Shepherd

Duke Journal of Comparative & International Law

No abstract provided.

A Step Closer: Economic Integration And The African Continental Free Trade Area, Nsongurua J. Udombana

Duke Journal of Comparative & International Law

Post-colonial Africa views economic integration as an endogenous means for attaining self-reliant, sustainable development. Working under various regional and sub-regional economic institutions, states elaborated several norms in search of legitimacy in economic competence. However, several political and economic pathogens, including weak institutions, have blighted those efforts. This paper interrogates the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA or CFTA), which is the latest attempt to reboot the integration drive and achieve sustainable development. The CFTA seeks to create a geographic zone where goods and services will move freely among member states by removing trade distortions and boosting factor mobility, competition, and …

Reframing Housing: Incorporating Public Law Principles Into Private Law, Kristen Barnes

Duke Journal of Comparative & International Law

A new public-private law paradigm is developing with respect to the relationship of the state to private contracts. The paradigm melds private law concepts like unconscionability, good faith, and fair dealing with the public human rights principles of dignity and vulnerability. I trace this paradigm shift in the context of the housing law of Spain, where several rich cultural and legal resources have inspired a new sensibility with regard to residential mortgage loan contracts, rental agreements, and the overall duties and obligations of governments to address the citizenry’s housing needs. Although this reorientation reflects decisions from the European Court of …

Testing Compliance, Brandon L. Garrett, Gregory Mitchell

Law and Contemporary Problems

No abstract provided.

Some Realism About Corporate Crime, James D. Nelson

Law and Contemporary Problems

No abstract provided.

Three Conceptions Of Corporate Crime (And One Avenue For Reform), Miriam H. Baer

Law and Contemporary Problems

No abstract provided.

Retiring Corporate Retribution, Samuel W. Buell

Law and Contemporary Problems

No abstract provided.

The Government’S Prioritization Of Information Over Sanction: Implications For Compliance, Veronica Root Martinez

Law and Contemporary Problems

No abstract provided.

The Body Corporate, Mihailis E. Diamantis

Law and Contemporary Problems

No abstract provided.

Using The Corporate Prosecution And Sentencing Model For Individuals: The Case For A Unified Federal Approach, Rachel E. Barkow

Law and Contemporary Problems

No abstract provided.